LAC LA BICHE - On Sept. 21, Skylar Roth-MacDonald, who ran 7,300 kilometers across Canada in 2021 raising $65,000 for the Canadian Mental Health Association continued his awareness campaign with a stop at J.A. Williams High School (JAWS) in Lac La Biche.
The professional runner, running coach and public speaker from Red Deer, has visited more than 60 schools across Alberta, giving presentations to create awareness about the importance of mental health, and the power of goal setting.
Inspired by other athletes
Roth-MacDonald’s cross-Canada run began on June 1, 2021, in Victoria, B.C The inspiration for embarking on a coast-to-coast run awareness campaign came from many areas of his life. He told students that mental health issues have always been around him. He said two of his friends in high school took their own lives, and more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic created more mental health challenges around the world.
Visiting the school, the day after the annual Terry Fox Run, Roth-MacDonald said he was inspired to make a difference by icons like Terry Fox and Rick Hansen — people who simply decided they would be a catalyst for change.
“In the back of my mind, I always knew I wanted to run across Canada…and so, in 2020, when the pandemic hit, it just hit me that like if I don’t do this now, I probably never will, because I have more time now than I ever will,” he said.
Long before setting out on his 7,300-kilometre journey, Roth MacDonald was determined to run in every one of Canada’s 10 provinces, including Newfoundland and Labrador.
“Some people will go from Vancouver to Halifax, I made sure I went from Victoria to St. John’s.”
Running into friends
Roth-MacDonald describes running from one end of the country to the other for charity as a “big adventure”. It was also an opportunity to see the county … and family.
While he was down East, he also took some time to visit with relatives in Ottawa and the Maritimes, adding that one of the highlights of his trip was spending a few days with his grandparents in Cape Breton.
During his four-and-a-half-month run across Canada, Roth-MacDonald was supported by a crew who took turns driving an RV that doubled as overnight accommodations as well as a place to get off his feet and fuel up on food and water before heading back out onto the road.
“I would have loved to have stayed in a hotel, but I was doing this with like no sponsors…so it was all on my own penny…which I really appreciate,” he said.
Running in Terry’s footsteps
One of the proudest moments in Roth-MacDonald’s marathon for mental health awareness, he told students, was when he ran where Terry Fox took his last steps in Thunder Day, Ontario, on Sept 1, 1980, after running 5,373 kilometres in his Marathon of Hope to raise money for cancer research.
“I ran where he took his last steps,” Roth-Macdonald said, adding that there was another similarity in the two runs. “Oddly enough, Terry and I actually ran for the exact same number of days - 143 days.”
Surpassing his original goal
Even before he took his first steps from Victoria, Roth-MacDonald had a goal of raising $50,000 in donations for the Canadian Mental Health Association, a number he was pleasantly surprised to have surpassed.
“By the time I got to Newfoundland, we hit $65,000…so that was the big goal,” he continued.
Following his presentation to the students at JAWS, Roth-MacDonald told Lakeland This Week that since he started travelling around the province speaking at schools about his own personal journey with mental health, he has received an overwhelmingly positive response. He added that many students have reached out to him in gratitude for helping them to get through difficult times.
“My goal is to go in there and help students realize that there is help out there…that they’re not alone…they are not the only person who is going through these dark times…and that there are actually bright days ahead.”
